Coming Soon: Section 33, Hindley Street’s newest small bar
In a dark, windowless basement on the corner of Hindley Street and the ever-bustling Peel Street, the floors are sticky with paint and the walls are much the same as new bar Section 33 races to its planned opening date.
In the past two years Adelaide’s small bar renaissance has been wonderful for fans of boutique whiskey, painstakingly curated local craft beer menus, beautiful wood paneling and bars with ‘moon’ in their title. But one thing that’s been relatively slow on the uptake is simple, unpretentious places for younger folks to chill with friends over a simple beer, without necessarily wanting or needing a deep appreciation for hoppy beer and inventive architecture. Sometimes, you just want a basement with no windows and a steady supply of tinnies and beats.
That’s where Kyle Young and the small team behind Section 33 have come in, bridging the gap between intimate small bar and the kind of mega pubs and clubs of the West End that prove a magnet for school leavers and uni students. “It was an Indian restaurant and we basically just gutted the kitchen, the ceilings had already been pulled down by the time we came down here… it was a scary place to be when we first started but it’s definitely come alive a bit,” he says. “Basically when something looks a bit dodgy, we paint it black,” he jokes.
Aside from the deliberately stark black walls, the venue is dotted by a handful of murals created by artist Jay Medlen, which lend a playful street quality to the space. “Jay’s definitely extremely talented, [usually] he’s more of a stencil artist- this is a bit more graff-y than what he normally does.”
As Young explains, it’s all about offering something different to the rest of Adelaide’s small bar scene, which he reckons is already nailing it. “If you wanna get a craft beer, everywhere on the street is pumping them out,” he says. “Everyone with a Small Venue Licence has gone down one avenue,’ he says. “And the thing is there’s a lot of quality places opening up, it’s not like the market’s been flooded with crap places – they’re awesome,” he says. “And that’s the thing, we’re trying to do something a little bit different to what everyone else is doing.”
That means keeping it simple when it comes to the drinks menu. “The theme of the place is cans and longnecks, stepping away from boutique beers,” he says. “[There’ll be] none of that, we’ll have a couple of American beers in but more of your shit-kicker American beers like Coors and TailGate beer.”
That said, there are still a few unique quirks for anyone who ventures down to Section 33. “We’re doing an Espresso ‘Jartini’ – we’ve got these jars ordered in and we’ll pre-make them beforehand. Then you just get a cube of ice, chuck it in and shake the jar then screw off the lid and drink straight from the jar full espresso, it’s just going to be cheaper,” he says. “We’re not going to break 500 martini glasses a year!”
With final licensing approval expected to come down over the next week, Section 33 is aiming to officially open in late March.
